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Das Boot and the German Cinema of Neoliberalism 1
Author(s) -
Baer Hester
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
the german quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.11
H-Index - 10
eISSN - 1756-1183
pISSN - 0016-8831
DOI - 10.1111/j.1756-1183.2012.00135.x
Subject(s) - movie theater , german , context (archaeology) , appeal , politics , neoliberalism (international relations) , nationalism , sociology , aesthetics , art history , political science , art , law , history , political economy , archaeology
This essay reconsiders the international blockbuster Das Boot on the thirtieth anniversary of its release, arguing that the film played a pivotal role in the shift from the Autorenkino of the 1960s and 1970s to a new, market‐driven producers' cinema with transnational appeal. My analysis reads Das Boot in the context of Deleuze's film theory, suggesting that Cinema can open up productive standpoints for examining popular cinema, but also pointing to some limitations of Deleuze's work for understanding the politics of commercial film today. Emphasizing the way Das Boot co‐opts aesthetic and political strategies of art cinema, I focus especially on its representation of (trans)nationalism, gender, and sexuality. A highly popular film that has rarely been analyzed by scholars, Das Boot suggests that cultural formations have played a crucial role in the process of neoliberalization in Germany.